Is it possible to train a rooster to mate with a hen gently?

[centrarchid]

The chasing bit is typical of immature / low ranking males. In the presence of mature males, those that employ chasing are much less active and often do not even attempt to mate hens / pullets. Avoid use of term "rooster" as too vague to permit quality communication on these issue. Indicate a males age based on months if less that a year of age and be prepared to use the term "cockerel". Males older than a year are best referred to as "cocks" and typically have a very different approach for females that usually does not involve chasing unless meeting a female from another flock.

 

[Bro-Inoka]

I do not permit my rooster to force himself on any unwilling hen, and yes, I was able to train him, not only not to rape, but also that aggression toward other chickens or humans is not acceptable.

How? I used a chicken leash after the rooster began bullying the hens and pullets. The final straw was when my son and I watched him chase a pullet all around the yard. When he finally did catch her,and mounted her, he pecked her and tore her comb before getting off, then pecked the base of her tail as she did the post-coital fluff, and pulled out one of her tail feathers. The poor pullet ran to us for comfort, and my son said that the rooster didn't how to behave right to females. We treated her ripped comb, and the gash under her wing, and let her rest in my son's lap until she felt well enough to go back to foraging with the other pullets.

I caught Pohaku-Head(the rooster), and put him in his own isolation coop. I talked to one of my friends, who used to be into cockfighting(but left after being busted once too often), and he suggested tying out Pohaku-Head, and gave me a leather leg harness to which I attached a long leash. Now when the chickens are let out for free range time, Pohaku-Head gets leashed outside too and can join the hens foraging, but if he tries to mate them, and they don't want it, they can easily get away. Pohaku-Head learned that if he wants to mate, he needs to respect them and call them over for food or doing the dance which he started doing when they stopped falling for his Tic-tic-tic call to eat(9 times out of 10, when we throw him scratch, he eats it all silently, then calls the hens once it's all gone). Now if he wants action, he needs to dance or call them nicely.

Over the past few days we tried letting him out with the hens without the leash, and he dances or calls them over, so he's trained for the moment. Any sign of hen rape or other aggression, and the leash goes back on.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

I do not permit my rooster to force himself on any unwilling hen, and yes, I was able to train him, not only not to rape, but also that aggression toward other chickens or humans is not acceptable.

How? I used a chicken leash after the rooster began bullying the hens and pullets. The final straw was when my son and I watched him chase a pullet all around the yard. When he finally did catch her,and mounted her, he pecked her and tore her comb before getting off, then pecked the base of her tail as she did the post-coital fluff, and pulled out one of her tail feathers. The poor pullet ran to us for comfort, and my son said that the rooster didn't how to behave right to females. We treated her ripped comb, and the gash under her wing, and let her rest in my son's lap until she felt well enough to go back to foraging with the other pullets.

I caught Pohaku-Head(the rooster), and put him in his own isolation coop. I talked to one of my friends, who used to be into cockfighting(but left after being busted once too often), and he suggested tying out Pohaku-Head, and gave me a leather leg harness to which I attached a long leash. Now when the chickens are let out for free range time, Pohaku-Head gets leashed outside too and can join the hens foraging, but if he tries to mate them, and they don't want it, they can easily get away. Pohaku-Head learned that if he wants to mate, he needs to respect them and call them over for food or doing the dance which he started doing when they stopped falling for his Tic-tic-tic call to eat(9 times out of 10, when we throw him scratch, he eats it all silently, then calls the hens once it's all gone). Now if he wants action, he needs to dance or call them nicely.

Over the past few days we tried letting him out with the hens without the leash, and he dances or calls them over, so he's trained for the moment. Any sign of hen rape or other aggression, and the leash goes back on.

Animals don't rape. That is anthropomorphizing animal behavior. They have a completely different thought process and an entirely different method of mating. It is a bit like saying male bears owe child support. If over breeding is the issue, the rooster should be separated from the hens, until, and if you want to breed more chicks. You don't need a rooster for egg production.

 

[centrarchid]

Animals don't rape.  That is anthropomorphizing animal behavior.  They have a completely different thought process and an entirely different method of mating.  It is a bit like saying male bears owe child support.  If over breeding is the issue, the rooster should be separated from the hens, until, and if you want to breed more chicks.  You don't need a rooster for egg production.

Some non-human animals employ rape for the same reason humans do. Thought processes in humans are over-rated with respect to such behaviors. Cost and benefits are similar to all parties regardless of species involved. It sometimes also a natural part of how many species reproduce even though not all parties benefit equally. With chickens such behavior is much more than natural owing to artificial social groups and containment resulting in what it called over breeding.

The assertion that a rooster can be trained out of such seems dubious. The rooster is more likely to age out of the process during the interval training is attempted.

 

[307151]

Can I breed this mean rooster though? Has anyone breed chickens and noticed they carry the same personality traits as their parents? I was thinking of collecting his sperm, preserving him, and breeding some hens later with it, but I don't want to if they might grow into aggressive chickens. I have 2 female americanaus that are very skittish of me, but 1 male americana who loves me, he literally lets me pick him up with no problem.

 

[307151]

My male americana also tried to do a little dance to my 50 pound dog.... It was the oddest thing I saw in sight honestly....

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Can I breed this mean rooster though? Has anyone breed chickens and noticed they carry the same personality traits as their parents? I was thinking of collecting his sperm, preserving him, and breeding some hens later with it, but I don't want to if they might grow into aggressive chickens. I have 2 female americanaus that are very skittish of me, but 1 male americana who loves me, he literally lets me pick him up with no problem.

I wouldn't recommend it without being able to admit that you'll need to cull any offspring with aggressive tendencies. Personality like that tends to be hereditary. If you believe that you'll be able to keep only the best of everything in any cockerels that you get out of the batch and dispose of the rest, then by all means, breed him. Otherwise, if you don't have the stomach for it, don't. There are too many good roosters around to breed a bad one.

 

[307151]

I wouldn't recommend it without being able to admit that you'll need to cull any offspring with aggressive tendencies. Personality like that tends to be hereditary. If you believe that you'll be able to keep only the best of everything in any cockerels that you get out of the batch and dispose of the rest, then by all means, breed him. Otherwise, if you don't have the stomach for it, don't. There are too many good roosters around to breed a bad one.

I'm deciding against it. I don't like aggressive hens either. I wasn't sure if it was heridatary or not since you can get mean hens from docile breeds and nice roosters from average breeds, like the one rooster I have who I'm in love with. I hope he doesn't ever end up turning on me like the one I'm going to have to cull. I'd give him hope that I could train him and he wouldn't be aggressive, but he's gone too far. Attacked my chiuahua for no reason, and my large dog had to bite him today. This rooster was never aggressive before he got introduced to the older laying hens.

 

[centrarchid]

elizabeth253,

Think about this. Most chickens kept by backyard fanciers are currently dead ends. That means they are very unlikely to have any offspring persisting more than a couple generations. If you intend to buck that trend, then breeding for a purpose will help greatly. Products of the breeding effort must be consistent and have characteristics desired by others that ultimately would want to have what you had a hand in breeding. At this time in our society the crosses will not meet that criterion unless you do many generations of selection with many birds. Otherwise stay within the breed. Do not waste effort on aggressive birds, especially if a given individual is aggressive while others raised with it are not.


The attacks launched likely to have a reason as far as the bird is concerned. Start thinking about that birds thoughts and see where you can removed the perceived threats. That will cut down on the number of roosters that are problematic.

 

[scottcaddy]

elizabeth253,

Think about this. Most chickens kept by backyard fanciers are currently dead ends. That means they are very unlikely to have any offspring persisting more than a couple generations. If you intend to buck that trend, then breeding for a purpose will help greatly. Products of the breeding effort must be consistent and have characteristics desired by others that ultimately would want to have what you had a hand in breeding. At this time in our society the crosses will not meet that criterion unless you do many generations of selection with many birds. Otherwise stay within the breed. Do not waste effort on aggressive birds, especially if a given individual is aggressive while others raised with it are not.


The attacks launched likely to have a reason as far as the bird is concerned. Start thinking about that birds thoughts and see where you can removed the perceived threats. That will cut down on the number of roosters that are problematic.

Scott